At $250 a bottle, Sam Adams' Utopias beer is worth every penny

Some experiences deserve more than just one column.

Last week, I shared with you excerpts from the interview I conducted with Jim Koch at Samuel Adams Brewery in the West End a few weeks ago. The 15-minute interview with Koch was certainly a high point of the afternoon-long experience, but it wasn’t the highlight. Not for me.

The highlight: Koch and several of his adjutants have just finished up taking a group of us media types on an in-depth tour of the brewery. We’re standing in a big room surrounded by gargantuan oak casks called foeders (pronounce that first syllable like “food” and you’ve got it). In the middle of the room is a table, on top of which sit two ornate bottles that look from a distance like they might be made out of gold, along with about two dozen glasses for sampling.

The power rankings are back: Top 5 breweries in Cincinnati right now

Spring drinkin': These Cincinnati breweries have great outdoor spaces

This is the Willy Wonka moment I’ve been waiting for. This is Utopias.

“I wanted you to have a chance to taste the lunatic fringe of brewing,” Koch told us. “It will blow away your notion of what beer can be.”

Utopias was illegal to sell in Ohio until just a few years ago when the state-mandated 12% ABV limit on beer was lifted. At 28% ABV, Utopias is stronger than Ohio grocery store liquor. Boston Beer Company releases about 10,000 bottles of Utopias every odd-numbered year.

It retails for $250 per bottle, and those 10,000 bottles are gone almost as fast as they appear in bottle shops around the country. The reason Utopias is in such high demand despite the price is the fact that there is simply no beer like it made anywhere. New batches of Utopias are blended with the previous years’ brews; some of that liquid dates all the way back to 1992, when Sam Adams Triple Bock set brewing industry records with its 18% ABV. Koch jokes that it’s the only beer old enough to drink itself.

“It’s like no beer you have ever had,” Koch said. “The flavor profile sits essentially between like a vintage port or an old cognac or a fine sherry. At this level of alcohol, the carbonation has long since fled the premises, frightened and scared.”

That first sip from the glass of beer Koch poured me was magical. It was just as he said it would be. I taste caramel and black cherry. I detect honey and vanilla and maple. I am in heaven.

But why make this? To Koch, this isn’t just some because-it-was-there mountain he had to climb. This is proof that beer doesn’t have to be fizzy and yellow. It doesn’t have to taste a certain way. Beer can be so much more than what most of us can imagine. Our definition of beer is too narrow, he said.

And here’s the best part: You don’t have to wait for the biennial release of a $250 bottle to see just how crazy different beer can be from your understanding of it. Beer can taste like a fine sherry, sure. But it can also taste like sangria or a mimosa or a slice of German chocolate cake. Beer doesn’t come in just one color or just one flavor. It can look, smell and taste like just about anything.

If you don’t think you like beer, that’s OK. But there’s a good chance you just haven’t found a beer that speaks to you. And fortunately, we have a whole bunch of great breweries here in Cincinnati that are challenging our definition of beer and broadening our minds with each new experiment.

The problem likely is not with you liking beer at all. It may just be that you haven’t found the one you like.

What’s in my glass

Queen City Crown from Sam Adams. Brewed in collaboration with Everything Cincy, Queen City Crown is a cream ale brewed with honey and aged with peaches. I’m not normally a fan of the flavor of peaches, but this was really well done. The peach isn’t over-the-top by any means. Instead, Queen City Crown joins my growing list of porch-pounding favorites from Sam Adams (although Cherry Wheat still tops it).

Queen City Crown is available on draft and in cans at the Samuel Adams Cincinnati taproom (1727 Logan St.).

Coming up

I’m looking forward to HighGrain Brewing’s third-anniversary party, set for Saturday, June 4 between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. The celebration will take place in the parking lot of the Silverton brewery (6860 Plainfield Road), and will feature live music, food trucks, vendors and limited beer releases.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: At $250 a bottle, Samuel Adams' Utopias beer is worth every penny